Various Composers – Janos Starker Plays Works By Debussy, Bartok And Others

More Mercury Label Classical Recordings

  • Starker and Sebok’s virtuoso performances debut on the site with the rich, dynamic, and tubey sound we were hoping for, earning STUNNING Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them throughout this early Plum Label Mercury pressing
  • Both of these sides are big, full-bodied, clean and clear, with a wonderfully present and solid piano, and plenty of 3D space around it
  • The cello is present and immediate, with sound that is remarkably textured, full and harmonically natural
  • Not only is this the best sounding copy we have to offer from our recent shootout, but we are happy to report that the vinyl is reasonably quiet for a vintage Plum Label Mercury stereo pressing

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Sammy Davis Jr. – Sings The Big Ones For Young Lovers

More Pop and Jazz Vocals

  • You will find amazing sound on both sides of this original Reprise stereo pressing
  • “Sammy Davis, who is widely acclaimed to be the greatest all-around-entertainment talent of our times, here swings thru an album filled with the greatest songs he’s ever tackled in his entire recording career. The result ? It has to be the greatest album Sammy’s ever recorded.”
  • 4 stars: “…[a] dozen-song outing, supported by some irresistible backdrops courtesy of arrangers Jimmie Haskell and Perry Botkin Jr… Sings the Big Ones for Young Lovers primarily consists of well-known covers…”
  • If you’re a fan of Sammy’s, this 1964 release belongs in your collection.

Although we liked it well enough, this title unfortunately  did not get much love from our customers.

Years ago it was tagged on the blog as a never again title, which simply means we would no longer plan on doing shootouts for it. (It’s possible we could do it again, expecially if we were to get hold of an amazing sounding pressing, but at this point that does not seem to be in the cards as we have stopped buying them altogether.)

We encourage you to find a nice copy for yourself. Stick with the early label. If you don’t hear the sound we describe below, you have the option to keep buying copies until you do.

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Takin’ Off – A Cisco Record We Used to Like

Hot Stamper Pressings of Blue Note Albums Available Now

UPDATE

This is a very old review and it is doubtful we would be as enthusiastic now as we were in 2006 when the Cisco pressing came out.

The sound is very good, with correct tonal balance and plenty of life. I was WAY TOO HARD on this album when it first came in. It’s playing right now and really swinging!

I just learned the secret to getting this one to sound right, and I am happy to share it with you. TURN IT UP! When you get some volume going, the musicians really come to life on this album. It may sound crazy, but you need to play this one as loud as you would play your average rock record.

Billy Higgins whacks the hell out of his snare on the second track on side one. He really goes to town on that thing. Imagine you are sitting twenty feet from him in a jazz club; it would be plenty loud, right? Now find the equivalent volume setting on your preamp, drop the needle and get ready to FEEL the music, the way you would feel it if you were in that club. 

Robert Pincus and Kevin Gray did a great job on this one. I put it right up there with the very best jazz records on Heavy Vinyl being made today. The first track is a tiny bit lean for my taste, but things get better after that.

Of course, how many copies do you really see of an album like this that aren’t beat to death, or minty but hundreds of dollars? Mighty few in our experience, so this has to be seen as a welcome addition to any audiophile’s jazz collection.

As a Rule, the Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66 CDs Suck

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Sergio Mendes Available Now

UPDATE 2026

This commentary was written shortly after having done our first shootout for the album in 2007.

As for the band’s CDs, for a great introduction to their music, please consider the compilation Four Sider. Four Sider also came out on record but like most compilations it is made from copy tapes and mediocre sounding at best.

Those of you who have purchased some of this group’s CDs may have noticed that they typically do not sound very good. It seems as though precious little effort was expended in their mastering, which is no doubt the case.

Almost any good original brown label A&M pressing will be better, although few of those do not suffer from sonic problems of their own.

A Note About The Mix

Fool on the Hill may not be up there with Sergio’s best sonically (not many albums are!), but it can still sound very good when you get the right stamper. The balance of this record takes some getting used to. We weren’t sure what to make of it at first.

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Avoid these Stampers on Buffalo Springfield’s Retrospective

Hot Stamper Pressings of Country and Country Rock Available Now

In 2025 we finally got around to doing another shootout for Buffalo Springfield’s wonderful Retrospective album, a “greatest hits” compilation for a band that really only had one hit but put out two of my all time favorite albums, Buffalo Springfield Again and Last Time Around. Our Shootout Winning early pressing was described this way:

Big, full-bodied, clear and present, the Tubey Magical richness of the best pressings is a joy to hear on modern high resolution equipment. “Kind Woman” and “I Am A Child” are two of the best sounding songs – listen to all that space around the voices and instruments

And the three Psych tracks – “On the Way Home,” “Broken Arrow” and “Expecting to Fly” – are guaranteed to be dramatically more three-dimensional than you’ve ever heard them.

But if you somehow ended up with a copy that has the wrong stampers, stampers similar to the ones you see below — on the original label mind you — none of those songs will have the audiophile qualities we describe.

And if you thought you were buying an original pressing of the album on the Yellow Atco label, well, that’s exactly what you were buying.

It’s not really your fault. The good pressings and the bad pressings all look the same. How were you to know your random purchase would only hint at the sound quality of the best pressings?

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Milt Jackson and John Coltrane – Bags & Trane

More of the Music of John Coltrane

  • Stunning sound throughout this stereo pressing, with both sides earning Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • If all you have ever played is an original pressing or a modern reissue, you are in for a treat — this copy is going to murder them
  • One of Tom Dowd’s many outstanding recordings of John Coltrane at the height of his powers – the sound is to die for
  • 5 stars: “Vibraphonist Milt Jackson and tenor saxophonist John Coltrane make for a surprisingly complementary team on this 1959 studio session, their only joint recording.”

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Letter of the Week – “The most remarkable drums I’ve ever heard, especially on side two.”

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Santana Available Now

One of our good customers had this to say about some Hot Stampers he purchased recently:

Hey Tom, 

[The Abraxas White Hot Stamper] is a monster. Practically tore down the walls. The most remarkable drums I’ve ever heard, especially on side two. The sound is completely circumambient, completely enveloping, but always musical with lovely harmonics even when blasting in the tuttis.

The Mobile Fidelity, which I own, is an attenuated portraiture of the real thing. I will soon be dropping it off at the local Salvation Army store.

Phil

Phil,

Quick question: Did you buy your MoFi before or after I put it in my Mobile Fidelity hall of shame?

And wrote this review of it: MoFi Manages to Disgrace Itself Even Further

See what happens when you don’t read my blog?

You end up with crappy remastered records like the ones Mobile Fidelity has been spewing out for more than forty years.

Some forum posters take us to task for criticizing the old MoFi that everybody knows made lousy records, not the new MoFi, which they believe — for reasons that I cannot begin to understand — makes good sounding records.

If this is the pride of the new MoFi, and it seems to be, I will leave it to those who post on forums to defend it. I certainly am not up to the task.

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What’s More Important – The Right Label or the Right Stamper Numbers?

Hot Stamper Pressings Featuring the Violin Available Now

In this case, since the stampers are the same, it’s the label that tells you how good your pressing may — heavy accent on the may — sound.

Lately we’ve been having exceptionally good luck with the early label pressings of many of the London violin concerto records we’ve done shootouts for.

However, the notes you see below do not belong to the wonderful Sibelius record pictured here.

They belong to another London record. We give out lots of bad stampers on this blog, but almost never do we give out the good ones. (When we do give out the best stampers, we usually keep the title a mystery, as is the case of the record here. To see the other titles whose Shootout Winning stampers have been revealed, please click here. The list to date is short but not to worry, more are on their way.)

The amazingly good sounding pressing on the early label took the recording to another level. Our shootout notes read:

  • Amazing violin sound and performance.
  • Very dynamic and realistic.
  • So much subtlety.

Key Takeaways

  • The top four copies all had the same stampers, yet the sound varied noticeably from side to side, from Super Hot (A++) to White Hot (A+++), with one earning the grade between, Nearly White Hot (A++ to A+++).

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What to Listen For on Songs from the Big Chair

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Tears For Fears Available Now

UPDATE 2026

Below you will find an excerpt from the commentary we wrote for an early Shootout Winning pressing we played many years ago.

There is one quality that the best copies always have and that the worst copies always lack: Frequency Extension, especially on the top end.

When you get a copy like this one, with superb extension up top, the grit and edge on the highs almost disappears. You can test for that quality on side one very easily with the percussive opening to Shout.

If plenty of harmonics and air are present at the opening, you are very likely hearing a high quality copy.

Side one here has smooth, sweet, analog richness and spaciousness I didn’t think was possible for this recording. The bass is full and punchy. When it really starts cooking, like in the louder, more dynamic sections of Shout or Mothers Talk, it doesn’t get harsh and abrasive like practically every other copy I’ve heard.

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